Throttle Body - considering removal to clean

[86VaNa60N]

Hi Samba Family:

My son the other day asked if I've ever cleaned my throttle body in my 86 Vanagon 2WD. Of course no, I've never messed with it. It idles good and has good acceleration. (180,000mi.)

Occasionally, if I don't let it warm up 1 min, it does this thing where I give it gas and it lags and could even die. Usually if I pull over and sit for 1 min, it goes away. Happens 1 out of 50 starts - no big deal. I always thought it was a fuel vacuum lock or something.

I recently purchased a new accelerator cable, a Gowesty Mechanical Throttle position switch, Throttle Body to Intake Plenum Seal and a fancy looking boot coupler to intake. I was considering removing the Throttle bod, cleaning it, replacing the TPS, and slapping on the new cable.

I've watched a couple of YouTube videos on adjusting the TPS (Van-Again And a VW tech training video) and it seems clear. However, I'm starting to think maybe I shouldn't mess with it if it's working good.

Am I opening a can f worms?

Thanks everyone for any wise words.
Happy New Year,
Noah

[Aryana]

Maintenance is like surgery, not exercise. More is not always better. The benefits have to outweigh the risks.

https://blog.aopa.org/aopa/2014/01/14/the-waddington-effect/

[syncrodoka]

Our throttle bodies suffer from wear at the pivot point causing a vacuum leak and and wearing the throttle plate from use. Cleaning it up wouldn't benefit it like cleaning a MAF on a modern vehicle.

[Ahwahnee]

No real disagreement with the above though I did remove mine to inspect and clean just because I wanted to examine the wear sometimes warned about.

It seemed fine to me, the bright light test did not reveal any untoward gaps that could not be compensated for with the idle screw.

If you do this you will probably want to have a new gasket in hand (a specific conical shaped thingy) else you may be stalled waiting for parts.

[86VaNa60N]

Thanks for the replies

I liked that article on the Waddington effect! Thanks
I'm going to consider this more before jumping into it. Possibly just clean it a little.

Thanks everyone

[Aryana]

Because you have all the parts to do it if you need to, now it will never need it LOL!

[86VaNa60N]

[djkeev]

My build thread outlines what I did to reseal the throttle body shafts.

The unit wasn't badly worn.

When cleaning you remove the years of built up gunk which sometimes is actually sealing up worn parts.

Proceed carefully, you may come to regret the cleaning effort undertaken.

Dave
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Ghia
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=392473

Vanagon
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6315537#6315537

Beetle
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=482968&highlight=74+super+vert

[86VaNa60N]

Thanks for all the good advice. Since the van is running good, I'll just save this for another time.